


Strange Allegiances

by Aishuu



Series: Three Point Games [3]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Community: temps_mort, M/M, Rikkai - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-05-23
Updated: 2005-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 19:16:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3989581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aishuu/pseuds/Aishuu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The friendships among Rikkai don't follow a simple line-up. The members of Rikkai come together in unusual and unexpected ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strange Allegiances

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a "Snapshots" challenge, in which a bunch of snapshots were supposed to build a more cohesive whole. It's a strange piece.

If anyone asked Yagyuu who his best friend on Rikkai was, he would think carefully and adjust his glasses before replying. "I would think that should be apparent," he would answer, politely dodging the question.

Yagyuu was like that, always dodging questions whose answers could potentially lead to more questions. He found questions intrusive, and disliked them on principle. Maybe it was because his upbringing was simply too strict to think that anyone had the right to demand how he thought - though it was more likely that he didn't want to examine his own thoughts too closely.

It was true that he spend a lot of time with Niou Masaharu. Niou was someone he knew well, and understood. Despite Niou's reputation of unpredictability, Yagyuu had figured him out relatively early on. Simply put, figure out the most irrational action, and Niou would do it and somehow pull it off.

Niou held relatively few surprises for him, and he knew Niou found his personality tedious. They were allies on the court, and perhaps comrades off the courts, but they were not friends. Friends implied intimacy, a willingness to share oneself with the other, but Yagyuu had never turned to Niou when he needed someone.

* * *

_"Have you ever wondered..."_

_"No."_

_"You didn't let me finish my question."_

_"I never wonder anything, so there was no need to let you ramble."  
_

* * *

The name Sanada Genichirou was a synonym for perfection.

Whatever Sanada did, he did well. It didn't matter if it was at school or play, he managed to master the task, and soon it became second nature. Kendo and tennis, art and sciences; he could do it all. Maybe that was why he was so frustrated that he couldn't beat Kirihara Akaya at any kind of video games.

Kirihara was a "jack of all trades." He tended to do well at most things, but there were few that he ever truly mastered. Tennis... and his beloved games. Fighting sims a specialty.

It was about halfway through Kirihara's first year that Sanada had received a casual invitation to accompany him to the arcade. Sanada had, truthfully, been a bit surprised. The first year had been practically hissing and spitting at everyone he'd met, and now he was making an overture to the man he saw as his main rival?

It was intriguing. It was something not even Yanagi had been able to predict.

It had ended up being an exercise in humility. Kirihara had managed to make Sanada empty his pockets, feeding the infernal machines in attempts to beat the first year at _any_ game, but somehow it never happened.

From then on, they met the first weekend of the month, and Sanada always lost.

* * *

_  
"Ha! Beat that!"_

_"I'll beat you one of these days."_

_"When hell freezes over?"_

_"Ka-ching! Hear that?"_

_"Huh?"_

_"That's the sound of the devil buying ice skates."_

_"Dream on!"  
_

* * *

The day Yukimura collapsed was the only day that Marui ever skipped lunch during his junior high career.

It was the second week of school, and Rikkai was preparing for the district tournament. The Kanagawa area offered no real challenges, but that was no excuse to take the matter lightly. Yanagi had created a training menu which pushed their limits, and Marui had already thrown out his recommended diet sheet. There was no way he was cutting out his favorite foods. 

Marui had, by luck of the draw, ended up in Yukimura's class this year. It was a lucky turn of events, because their kind and gently captain was a great student who always had his homework done and could be persuaded to loan it for copying in a pinch. Having Yukimura in class was great, because people came and visited, and Marui didn't have to wander around to track down the rest of his team.

On that day, Yukimura had looked perfectly fine, and Marui had even stolen a bit of shrimp out of his lunch before class had started. In the middle of class, though, Yukimura's eyes fluttered once, twice... and then his forehead hit the desk with a sickening thud.

Practice was canceled for that day. The regulars all gathered at the hospital, waiting for the truth... but it would be weeks before the diagnosis would be reached. All they knew was that their captain was sick, and there was nothing they could do for him - except look after each other in his stead.

* * *

_"I visited Yukimura yesterday."_

_"That's nice."_

_"Aren't you curious how he is?"_

_"Not really. We were never particularly close."_

_"You're not close to anyone."_

_"Except you."_

* * *

Yanagi hadn't meant to fall in love, but sometimes love had a way of hitting people upside the head with all the subtlety of a two-by-four.

He had always thought he was in love with Yukimura, or maybe Sanada, or even Saduharu from childhood, but those feelings faded one day when a smirk was cast at him by someone who didn't have a clue what he was doing. It was illogical, but unlike Saduharu, Yanagi recognized that Shakespeare had spoken truly when he said that not everything was dreamt of under heaven and earth. 

The first day of his second year, he met the new first years, and they included Kirihara. The boy was wild and untamed, but something about him glittered, like an uncut diamond just waiting for a jeweler to take note and offer a bit of love.

He knew that he wasn't the right person for Kirihara. They were all wrong for each other; he couldn't understand the boy's cruelty, and the other boy couldn't understand the way he accepted things. When Yukimura became sick, whenever Sanada's temper got the worst of him... Yanagi accepted.

It was something Kirihara could never do.

Yanagi couldn't stop watching, him, though. Just because you knew something would never be yours didn't mean you stopped wanting it.

* * *

_"I think I love you."_

_"Oh?"_

_"That's all you have to say?"_

_"Well, you didn't say for sure."_

_"Fine... I love you. Happy?"_

_"Maybe."  
_

* * *

Niou was Niou. 

That was his mission in life; to simply be himself. It was strange to think that one time he had switched with Yagyuu and given up his identity to another. It had been one of the most singularly unpleasant experiences of his life, and he resolves never to do that again.

Niou was an Individual, and proud of that.

The thing about rampant individuals, though, was that their rebellion sometimes brought a strange kind of uniformity. Niou knew that Yagyuu had learned to anticipate him, and so had Yanagi. Despite his stubborn independent streak, he found himself being tied more and more tightly to the team through the sly manipulations of Yukimura and Sanada, and it was enough to make him want to scream. He hated being told what to do, he hated having people anticipate him, and he hated being relied on. He was _The Trickster_ and he was supposed to be feared, not thought of as amusing.

Somehow, the biggest joke was seeming to end up on him, and he knew it. Somehow, he'd caught himself in his own trap - the trap of reputation. After all, a trick was best played on the unsuspecting... but everyone suspected him.

* * *

_  
"I hate it when people tell me what to do."_

_"And this is supposed to surprise me?"_

_"Well, no."_

_"None of us like being told what to do, but sometimes we do it because we don't have any choice."_

_"There's always a choice!"_

_"Any_ sane _choice."_

* * *

The thing about being Jackal was that his life was hell.

Putting up with Kirihara and Marui was enough to try anyone's sanity. The two were like little children, and trying to keep both happy was an impossible task - but Jackal did try. Maybe that was his mistake. If he's been willing to admit his failing, he might have had it a hell of a lot easier. But... he loved both of them, and he couldn't let them down.

Marui was like a sunbeam, transitory and beautiful, playful and somehow able to warm Jackal's heart with a smile or even a complaint. The "snap snap" of his gum seemed to indicate the boy was always running on some kind of sugary high, but keeping up with him was draining, even for an outgoing personality like Jackal's.

Kirihara might have been the problem.

Trying to keep the little bastard from hurting someone was nearly a full-time job, and hoping that the boy would someday grow up into the person he saw occasionally flash behind those almost unnoticed moments of kindness was the only thing that made his life bearable. If he didn't have to watch Kirihara, he might have had time to simply adore Marui's company, but as it was, he was pulled in two directions, trying to keep the world from crashing down.

* * *

_  
"Do you resent me?"_

_"How could I?"_

_"Isn't it hard for you to choose, between me and your partner?"_

_"My partner and I just play tennis. You're the one who cares about me."  
_

* * *

For Yukimura, tennis wasn't as important as it should have been, after his third year began. Nearly dying had a way of changing your perspective. During his first two years, he had lived and breathed the sport, and that had been all that mattered. His closest friends were Yanagi and Sanada, and together they joined each other in their triumphs.

Then he wound up in the hospital, and his world changed.

Yanagi wasn't uncomfortable with his illness, but Sanada was. Even though they both visited, a distance grew between them, one which they never completely overcame, even when Yukimura became well again.

It was Kirihara and Niou who he saw the most often - Kirihara, in his childish naivete, and Niou, who always seemed to have some kind of tall tale to spin to make him laugh. Kirihara would come by day, a warm smile on his face as he railed against the injustices in life, while Niou snuck in after hours to leave him some kind of sweet which he'd have no appetite to eat. Neither of them really understood the serious nature of Yukimura's illness, but at least they tried.

When he was finally discharged, somehow or other he found himself pulled to Niou's side more than Sanada's, waiting for the next laugh. He'd had enough of despair and seriousness; he needed to remember how to live.

* * *

_"If you could have anything, what would it be?"_

_"For you to be quiet so I can study to get an A on tomorrow's test."_

_"...you need to dream bigger."_

_"I'm practical."_

_"Frighteningly so."_

_"You've always known it's my nature to see things as they are, rather than as they can be. I let you dream for me."  
_

* * *

Theirs was the strangest friendship of the whole Rikkai team.

Kirihara couldn't remember the first time he spoke to Yagyuu, but something had clicked that day. There was a saying that opposites attracted, and in their cases, it was definitely true - though he sometimes didn't think they were that opposite at all.

Yagyuu came from a very structured family, while Kirihara's family had none. Yagyuu's father was a doctor, and rarely home. Expectation of Yagyuu, though, were high, and he grew up fast, learning to be exactly what others expected of him.

Maybe he learned to resent that. Maybe that was why he found the first year Kirihara so fascinating.

Kirihara played a game at Rikkai on his first day, and beat a second year with ease. The style of his play was what truly drew the eye - vicious. There was nothing about him that showed any restraint. Kirihara was like a railway car without any brakes - the only thing that would stop him would be a head-first crash into some unmovable object.

It was beautiful to watch. There was no shame in watching such glorious destruction.

Six months in, when it became clear that Kirihara was a less than enthusiastic student, Yagyuu volunteered to tutor him. Yagyuu was good at everything, as was to be expected, and he found the opportunity to spend time around the quicksilver Kirihara irresistible.

It was the first time Kirihara noticed him.

Kirihara's home was much like Kirihara himself, a mix of organized chaos and a strange sort of welcoming that Yagyuu immediately found both welcoming and off-putting. His mother offered them Ponta with wasabi sushi for snacks, and Kirihara's desk was stacked his with tennis magazines and science notes. His English homework, marked with vivid red lines of censure, were shoved in an empty fish tank, which Kirihara said he'd had since he was five.

Kirihara had been eager to work, and Yagyuu hadn't been surprised at the keen mind behind the blue-green eyes. The other youth was merely indifferent to conventional classes, sleeping through more than half of them. If he was interested in something - like tennis or art - he could ramble for hours.

Yagyuu found himself spending most of his Saturdays at the Kirihara residence, tutoring or playing games, or gradually relaxing from the tenseness of his life. Kirihara didn't mind - Yagyuu didn't make demands on him, and wasn't disappointed when he didn't ace a test. Gradually their conversations would wind away from school or sports, and onto other things.

Kirihara liked that. Kirihara liked being treated like a person, instead of a child. Yagyuu never looked down on him, because Yagyuu seemed to see something in Kirihara as he was, and didn't need him to change.

If anything, Kirihara allowed Yagyuu to show his other side, because Kirihara was completely comfortable with himself, and made no excuses.

* * *

_"I heard Kikumaru had a concussion from that ball hitting him."_

_"It wasn't permanent."_

_"It could have been."_

_"Accidents happen."_

_"Are you trying to tell me it was an accident?"_

_"Would you believe me?"_

_"No, I know you better. You're just as vicious as I am."_

_"That's why I love you. You're the only one who understands."_


End file.
